Quote:
FrankTrollman said:
Iron Faith is a crap team that can't win. The fact that their full random is used as an excuse for why regular Ulm can't have nice things just makes it even worse. Really, using Iron Faith as an excuse for why Ulm can't have randoms is like using Serpent Cult Pythium as an example of why Oceania shouldn't be allowed to have Nature and Water mages. If a theme is a waste of space, its existence shouldn't keep others from horning in on its junk.
-Frank
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Note that Iron Faith has only been raised in answer to Oversway's suggestion of giving one full random to Ulm; whether this is enough or not is another matter altogether. Ulm can do well (bring your own Rainbow/SC Pretender), and I see no reason why Iron Faith would not do just as well. Those themes are simply different, and their attractions are not quite the same: regular Ulm has more design points and better Earth mages, while Iron Faith has cheaper and more varied mages, but at the cost of a weaker research (until Stone Idols come online). In this case, there is the point in having Iron Faith around, though it may not appeal to all players. That Ulm is too weak can be argued; that Iron Faith is much weaker and useless (*Nods to PvK*) seems to be a whole different matter.
I can't say I see the link between "one theme has a random, one of its few attractions over the main nation" and "one nation has mages with a combination of two paths, making it impossible for another nation to have the same mages". In the first case, that random is a major reason to play Iron Faith; in the second case, there is no connection, as some nations share the same magic (Atlantis and R'lyeh are very close, like Pythium and Conquerors of the Seas, or even Raptors and Vanheim, or Carrion Woods and C'tis).
If you do want to see a theme whose use seems dubious, Barbarian Kings is the usual example: a much weaker economy, the same mages as in the basic theme, and a slightly better cavalry (plus the Master of the Dead) does not cut it. I think it is the only theme I would never consider, unless I wanted a strong handicap; even a theme like Return of the Raptors allows to do things outside the normal scope of Caelum. It does not mean Return of the Raptors is an appealing choice, or on an equal footing with the regular nation: all it means is that Return of the Raptors offers a different nation, pretty much like Iron Faith.
I am not going to tackle such balance issues however, mostly because I do not think I am competent to deal with such matters (if I thought so, I would have already worked on a mod or in a grand project mending everything "wrong" and "broken" in Dominions).